Why You Should Care About CC0 NFTs

What precisely are CC0 NFTs?

In recent years, nonfungible tokens have been heralded as the quick fix to digital ownership and intellectual property issues (IP). CC0 NFTs, on the other hand, has given rise to a new class of NFTs and pioneers who believe in them.

To creators, CC0 nonfungible tokens are equivalent to open-source software. Their design principles were digital ownership and IP protection when they were first introduced. Several projects in the market have benefited from the holders of these digital assets owning the intellectual property rights to their artwork.

Holders could bring in revenue by permitting creators, businesses, and manufacturers to pay a fee to use their artwork. Other creators, collections, and sometimes even traditional companies could use nonfungible token images to construct their brands if they obtained the holders' authorization.

A new movement known as CC0 NFTs has recently taken the nonfungible token market by storm. The "Creative Commons Zero" licensing model inspired the term. Creators can forfeit their rights to their art under this model, enabling others to openly use it to create more art, a product, or a brand on top of it.

How did it become popular?

Although one crucial project chose CC0 in 2021, many others jumped on board in 2022, with a CC0 summer in which many large projects went the route.

The "Nouns" project was possibly the first notable project to introduce the licensing model. They were quickly followed by a slew of nonfungible token initiatives that selected the CC0 route, including Moonbirds, Cryptoadz, Cryptoteddies, and Loot.

As a result, collections now have more leeway to draw encouragement from these collections. Derivative NFTs generally attract design and art ideas from the parent NFT collection, which most often expands the parent collection's brand outreach. With its rise, derivatives gained more freedom.

However, this had commercial implications for holders and work units who make essential business decisions for the nonfungible token society.

What are the consequences for the community?

This approach is accompanied by challenges, especially for individual holders who want to monetize their ownership rights on nonfungible tokens.

Digital assets that have not embraced it have had their nonfungible tokens licensed to businesses, brands, and creative initiatives by holders. Some nonfungible token communities that went through it had disgruntled community members and commercial drawbacks in the short term.

By discarding the IP friction points, CC0 allows for the accessible use of the brand and art. Nevertheless, some top community NFT holders own their profile picture (PFP) nonfungible tokens to utilize the NFTs' IP. When the nonfungible token development team chose the CC0 route, some lost significant opportunities in licensing agreements.

This approach, like open-source software, has advantages and disadvantages. There are short-term consequences for community members who wish to exercise their IP rights over the NFTs. However, the long-term benefit of establishing the brand through a flexible approach is equally appealing to many.

What does this mean for the project team?

In the same way that the Web3 world has primarily highlighted openness and transparency with code, creators and teams are doing the same with art. However, this is only the start of the journey, and nonfungible token creators and societies must recognize this.

It is sometimes presented as a logical conclusion in which founders hand over the process of working on their creation to their community and even beyond. A few speculative projects that promote NFT culture have been developed for some collections, almost as brand extensions. However, declaring a project CC0 is only the first step.

Working groups and innovators who choose this option must encourage the brand's usage and onboard other creators and projects to build the brand plugins for their collections.

What are the future prospects?

NFTs are still in their infancy. As artists and creators look for new ways to create and commercialize their content, new products and platforms are arising to provide frameworks for creators to operate, build, and monetize their brands.

The world of nonfungible tokens is still in its infancy. Over the last few years, an economic model for artists and creators has emerged. Every new business model necessitates the development of new distribution strategies.

Digital assets have demonstrated how to monetize a brand. However, relying on a small community to build brand distribution is not scalable. CC0 NFTs would possess the bells and whistles required to scale their brand outreach as more co-creation designs arise and more platforms actually to encourage become widely popular.

Interoperability is another crucial building block for nonfungible tokens to expand their reach. The world of NFT is still fragmented across various blockchains. Better interoperability across chains is required, and nonfungible token cultures must be independent of the infrastructure on which they are built.

As these infrastructure and community collaboration layers mature, CC0 nonfungible tokens will acquire the rails they need to expand their brand beyond just a community of 10,000 NFT holders.

What do you think about CC0 NFTs? Do you see them playing an important role in the future of the digital world?  Let us know your thoughts by sharing this article online.